Select committee: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee
Conclusion 32
Eleventh Report - Decarbonisation of the power sector
Published 28 Apr 2023
Paragraph 152
Addressed to Department for Business and Trade
Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee Decarbonisation of the power sector All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
Blue hydrogen may have value as a transitional measure which builds a market for hydrogen and provides supply over the shorter term. However, excess reliance on blue hydrogen could leave the UK exposed to volatile international gas prices and risk increasing greenhouse gas emissions due to the threat of methane leakage. In response to this report, we ask that the Government sets out how its plans for blue hydrogen will address recent evidence that hydrogen emissions escaping from gas pipelines have a stronger warming effect in the atmosphere than previously thought. It should include in that response an account of how it will ensure that efforts to constrain and monitor methane leakage at point of extraction, transportation and storage are robust.
From: Business, Innovation, Science and Trade Committee, Eleventh Report - Decarbonisation of the power sector (HC 283), paragraph 152, 28 April 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 14 July 2023 (deadline 28 June 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the Committee's report and responds to each recommendation, planning annual reporting on power sector decarbonisation while setting out where it will not adopt specific proposals.
- On the call for a long-term delivery plan, the government "plans to report on its delivery, and overall plan to deliver the commitment, on an annual basis", and is strengthening its portfolio management approach.
- On a UK-wide onshore wind target, it states that setting one "would potentially undermine the flexibility needed" across the UK.
- On biomass, it has "no plans to remove support prior to 2027" for stations already supported, saying they "have a statutory right to their existing support".
- On Ofgem's duties, it is "content to amend" Ofgem's existing duty on greenhouse gases to refer specifically to the net zero targets in the Climate Change Act 2008.